As a geek dad myself, I certainly agree that there are some skills I should have in order to maintain the title. But there are some on this list that I simply can’t get behind. “Leeching wi-fi from the neighbor” and “Cracking WEP on someone’s router” are not only morally wrong, they are silly—much better to knock on their door and ask to borrow the tubes, and offer to give them something in return. Or get thyself to a coffeehouse and contribute to the local economy. Being a geek is not the same thing as taking things that don’t belong to you. Not a good thing to teach the geeklets.

“Use any piece of technology intuitively, without instruction or prior knowledge.” That’s a rather vague requirement. Nuclear power stations count as technology. Much better to RTFM, I think. In fact, I’d say that the ability and willingness to read a manual before jumping into an unknown system is paramount to geek cred.

Also, re #76, if you make coffee in under a minute, yr doin it rong. Srsly. Note to self: write post in near future about how to brew good coffee.

However, I sincerely agree with #99: “Talk about things that aren’t tech related.”

#100, however, is obvious—write an article like that one and get it published on Wired. 🙂